Teacher evaluations

Question: Are the high school teachers evaluated?

Answer: All teachers in the district are evaluated according to current state Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) regulations -- not the new regulations you may have read about in the news. Until a new contract with the Broadalbin-Perth Teachers' Association (BPTA) is ratified, we will continue to use the current model.

The New York State Education Department requires that all school districts have an APPR plan, which must describe how teachers are evaluated. Evaluations vary based on the stage a teacher is in his or her career. New or probationary teachers are typically evaluated three times in their first year, two times in their second year and one time in their third year. Tenured teachers are evaluated using a professional growth model: Teachers work with principals to set three measurable goals in their tenure areas and are later evaluated based on those goals.
- answered by Stephen Tomlinson, Superintendent of Schools

Contract negotiations

Question: Will the Board of Education make public their "threshold" limits on topics such as salary schedules and both pre- and post-retirement benefit packages in regards to the labor contract negotiations prior to the negotiations taking place in, I believe, 2012?

Answer: No -- this would be against the law. Negotiations with all labor unions are confidential and are conducted in closed sessions.

Typically, negotiations begin sixth months before a contract is scheduled to expire. The contract you're referring to is the Broadalbin-Perth Teachers' Association's (BPTA) contract, which expires at the end of the school's fiscal year, on June 30, 2012. The district plans to have legal council that specializes in labor negotiations negotiate this contract -- something that has not been done in the past.
- answered by Stephen Tomlinson, District Superintendent

Savings from eliminating Indemnity Plan

Question: Last year, the district got rid of the “Cadillac” health insurance plan in the BPTA’s contract in order to save money. What I want to know is, why didn’t the district use the money it saved to reduce taxes instead of bringing back teachers who had already been laid off?

Answer: Even though the Broadalbin-Perth Teachers Association was under no obligation to open its contract to renegotiation before it expires in 2012, association members agreed to renegotiate the health care portion of the contract last year in order to help save the jobs of five colleagues who otherwise would have been laid off.

District administrators and the Board of Education agreed to retain those positions in order to gain the significant savings the district could realize by eliminating the Blue Cross Blue Shield Indemnity Plan from the BPTA contract. Eliminating this plan will provide significant savings for the district that will go toward both retaining teachers and limiting the tax levy in the coming years.
- answered by Stephen Tomlinson, District Superintendent